e the Schoolboard work session begins in 1 minute please take your seats again the Schoolboard work session begins in 1 minute e [Music]
good morning board I now call the February 20th 2025 administrative briefing and work session of the Maran County School Board to order at 9:00 a.m. board at this time we are going in to recess for an attorney client session at 9:00 a.m. thank
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e e e e e e e good morning and welcome back we're now going to reconvene the administrative briefing and work session
are9 are we picking up okay I don't okay can you all hear me now okay all right sorry okay so we're going to reconvene the administrative briefing and work session at
10:09 please silence your electronic devices to avoid disturbing others mirroring and modeling how our students begin each day I ask that you please pause with me for a moment of silence please please join me thank you good morning attorney
Powers good morning um this work session is a public meeting as defined in Florida's Sunshine Law the board is dedicated to full transparency in its meetings and its work in compliance with the Sunshine Law the board has adopted uniform meeting procedures including the
right for citizens to participate the board will allow public comment regarding any work session item listed on today's agenda at the appropriate time speakers must fill out a request form located in the lobby and hand it to the board clerk after the board and
superintendent have completed their discussion on a particular agenda item the board's clerk will call speaker's name in the order received each speaker will have three minutes as required by the Sunshine Law the board must maintain orderly conduct and proper deorum throughout this meeting speakers May
criticize subject matter and decisions in a respectful manner but not people finally speakers must be very careful not to violate the Privacy rights of others especially students and their family members by mentioning their names or other identifying information thank you for your attention to these
important rules thank you attorney Powers good morning Miss Martinez would you please share um the proof of publication for today's meeting the notice for the February 20th 2025 work session was published in the Ocala Gazette on February 7th 2025 proof
of publication has been attached to board dos under proof of publication thank you we will now begin the work session with the superintendent's administrative briefing good morning Dr gallet good morning Madam chair members of the board I do not have any briefing at this time this uh item is for you today solely so we
can move on to miss Boston Ellis thank you good morning good morning Miss Boston Ellis she's coming good morning uh chair Conrad board members superintendent Dr gullet uh we're here
today to talk about internal controls um as you may be aware uh several years ago there was a statue that said if you had over a certain dollar amount in Revenue
that we had to hire an internal auditor um and it but it could be a contracted or we had to hire uh staff to do that so for uh Maring County uh you've chosen to use a contracted Services of
RSM uh this is our second go round uh there were three uh items that were reviewed up last year and this is the conclusion of the second set of items and today we have with us Claire Ying as
well as Michelle Copa uh who will go over uh their findings thank you Miss bonellis hi everyone can you hear me good morning sorry um Clara Ying with RSM we are the fifth largest accounting
firm our side of the house we focus 100% on internal audit for public sector um in state of Florida we work with you are one of 10 where we are the outsourced internal Auditors and we're soon to be one of 11 um we're in a Contracting
phase with another school district right now so like Miss Boston Alis said this is our second round with internal audit and what I like to do is kind of um I like to just read off the objectives of internal audit overall we're here to assess and improve the effectiveness of
an organization's internal controls by evaluating the reliabil Integrity of Financial and operational information safeguarding assets detecting fraud compliance and compliance with laws and regulations we identify
opportunities for operational efficiency all while Pro all while providing independent objective Assurance to management leadership and you all as the board and again this is our second round so internal audit is still new to this District it can we can be intimidating
it can be cumbersome our objective is to come in and help the processes as much as possible we're not gacha Auditors that's not our mindset when we come in and we look at these processes the processes that were identified and then selected by you all these are processes where they're just
inherently high risk um it's not because we thought that something was wrong with them they're decentralized they're inherently high risk um and they should be looked at on a ongoing basis we have two topics one is HR on boarding great time for us to to look at it last year
you had change in key leadership so we're always looking at people process and Technology when it comes to these these um high-risk Focus areas so a great time for us to come in when you're having that change in that senior leadership um procurement procurement again is inherently high risk the number
of transactions the dollar value decentralized um aspects of it one thing I'd like to address before we get started is working with management um man your your team was very forthcoming with information um this was again this
is new to them so they're still learning about internal audit and what internal audit is what we do what our focus is but the the groups that we work with were very forthcoming with information um identification of the observations the development of the recommendations
and then their input with how they're going to remediate as well um so I will turn it over to Michelle Copa who's one of the managers that works on this so she will start through HR first we have the summarized version that we're going to go through but you also have the
detailed report as well thank you good morning good morning we like to thank um the board and the superintendent for having us here today to discuss um the internal
account or internal audit findings um for the 2024 audit plan um um through the PowerPoint presentation that we have here um as Clara had mentioned we will be discussing employee recruiting and
onboarding first um then we'll be going into the purchasing and procurement compliance we've already discussed cyber security and then at the end we will be discussing the internal audit plan for the following fiscal year
fy2 as we go through our reports can I ask you a favor yes would you lean into the just a little bit more move it closer there we go is that better that is better thank you so much thank you um for the risk rating items here
you're going to see these throughout our reports so just providing a a little overview of the definitions for low moderate and High um basically this is to provide uh concepts for your your management as they're going to uh
prioritize their remediation um hopefully taking those those highlevel um risk rating items to be um the most actionable uh first and um and then working their way down through
moderate and low however Sometimes some of the higher risk ratings are um very complex in the way they might be remediated so they could take a little bit longer um but it's definitely something that as we're discussing with management that we are emphasizing for
them to um provide the remediation so going into employee recruiting and onboarding um we do have a quick overview of our objectives here looking at the recruiting the selecting
and onboarding of your employees um we'd like to um emphasize the fact that the the audit period that we looked at was for April 2023 to March of 2024 so that's the window of
time that we tested and um as we went through our process with um our HR Group um we started in May of 20124 and we ended our field work in
November of 2024 um within that uh time frame we um start our approach by just getting understanding of the process um with the HR division uh we sat on and had
interviews uh walkthroughs of their processes um obtaining information uh regarding their policies and procedures and um after we delve through all of that information we create a work plan and we choose a
sample of employees to do uh testing of your onboarding process so that way we can we're looking looking at the process as well as looking at the operating effectiveness of the process at the conclusion we will provide a report which is um and a
presentation to the board which is what we're doing today overall you know we'd really like to thank Miss Morant and her team um they have been wonderful to work with as Clara had mentioned very open very transparent with us um very helpful um
and it was a great experience to work with them um their overall processes within the HR onboarding are welldeveloped and we could tell that the the processes were implemented with diligence by the staff um as we go
through the observations you'll see that many of them are a lower risk rating which is actually not typical with a lot of our school districts so Marian um schools in overall capacity it has a a
higher um op you know they they are operating in a higher capacity than many of our other school districts From nhr perspective and um and you're going to see that as well as we kind of dive into those um individual instances of of compliance
as we kind of go through the observations so our first one here let that stop segregation of Duties and user access so as a part of our process um we want to make sure that there's proper
segregation of Duties um from a system perspective as well as a um process perspective um and within this we noted that there was like limited um differentiation between the access
permissions for individuals that have a role within the h our system so really kind of focusing on the the system processes within Skyward um we're not saying that there are necessarily um items that we
identified specifically but there it was very difficult for us to really kind of dive into um the documentation that would support those role permissions and we did see that there was not um a wide
volume of roles in place so this is something that the ti group is already aware of they've already been working actively with the HR division to further Define and document those roles and and permissions
within the Skyward system and um and really work um to to make sure that there's clear dur delineation between the different processes and the roles for the individuals that have those accesses in addition our um user access
review we did identify nine instances um where the permissions exceeded what was necessary for the job function however with all of those nine instances it was for an obsolete function within Skyward that wasn't being used anymore so there
was very low risk around that um and the ti group has already gone through and removed those um permissions I will say that this is a common um situation that we do see and a
common observation with a lot of our school districts our recommendation is for TI and the user Department which in this case would be HR to continue to collaborate to define those roles and
POS and permissions and really get uh into a Cadence of reviewing them on a regular basis at least annually to make sure that they're still operating as intended and that the individuals with access um are the the correct
individuals any questions any questions at this time all right thank you um number two has to do with onboarding documentation um within this uh we did identify a couple of instances about
eight out of 50 in which there were eer either missing or incomplete documentation around that onboarding process within that um we do note that a majority of those instances are documents that are um stored and
maintained at the school sites or the department sites so it's a very decentralized approach to the documentation um and so it's not something that the HR division would necessarily have eyes on um within the
current structure that they have we did test across uh 34 schools and departments as we pulled our samples um so we did get a good look across um the district for that um our recommendation around that
would be um perhaps like centralized oversight and monitoring if HR had a little bit better um visibility and monitoring into those documents then that would help kind of catch them on the front end and making sure that they
are uh created and stored uh for retention in the future again this is also a very common observation that we see at a lot of our districts and as mentioned earlier um the instances that we identified were
actually much lower than we had seen at other districts as well any questions just have one okay or did anybody else have a question so just real quick um when you comment there were eight out of 50 that you sampled um
had missing documents but that some of the documents were stored at the school site was that overall what you found is the documents were there but they just um HR didn't have them in housee so the site so we had a total of eight
instances and um there's six of those where um those items are stored at the school site in the department site um and they were not able to provide them to us all right thank
you number three we have standard operating procedures um within our reports um we look very closely at operating procedures they really guide the practice um of whatever the function
that we're reviewing and so we always have anop observation in our reports so this is a no exception to that um we did see that there are welldeveloped procedures in place and they just needed
to have a little bit more detail added in um and we we cover about six areas um to provide additional detail in those procedures so basically our recommendation is to add those
additional um procedures into their current um process there are already processes that they perform but just documenting them into their their procedures and then reviewing that on an annual basis to make sure that it's up to dat on number four we have job
description approval So within this um we identified that there there's not a a formalized documented procedure in order to document that internal approval that's taking place before a job description
goes to the board so not that it wasn't happening not that there wasn't collaboration within the district to have this conversation and discussion and um creating that decision but just that there wasn't a documented um form
or process in order to to make sure that that is um documented throughout the process before it gets to the next step um you know who should be uh approving that how should that approval be
documented where should it be stored Etc again this is also a common observation that we're seeing at a lot of our districts and then number five is compensation calculation review and documentation ation within this we identified that
there's no secondary formalized review of the compensation for each new employee that comes in or for a transfer that's coming in um before it's going into the system and payroll goes out to that individual um we did test that
through our testing procedures and we did not identify any exceptions around compensation so all of that looked good but our um recommendation is that there is a secondary review that's formalized and that they're reperform that
calculation to make sure it's accurate before moving on so that concludes our observations around our employee recruiting and onboarding we did also add um a couple of process Improvement opportunities um
into the mix just to provide additional efficiencies um and areas that we identified where perhaps the district um could work on in the future for number one we have a manual HR process and procedures we did
identify several manual procedures and processes that were taking place kind of outside of the Skyward system um again this is also very common with our school districts and our recommendation is to for the district for to um research
trying to automate those items as much as possible our second item has to do with procedures by employee type if you remember our timekeeping report also had something around these um employee types
so really trying to streamline those practices as much as possible um will help with efficiencies throughout the district and then on our third one here we have the non non-employee information collection um really more from an
efficiency standpoint um you if the the district is focusing on employees um going through that onboarding process that would um provide an efficiency any questions okay okay see none I think
we're good to go ahead okay thank all right let me gra Michelle's grabbing her document so we're going to move into our next one which is purchasing and procurement compliance again this is just a high
risk process a lot of dollars a lot of transactions decentralized aspects um the the district has grown throughout the years which is fantastic but it's also about making sure that you're mitigating your risk you're tightening your internal controls around that
growth um so Michelle will walk through the the report for this one same same approach we always go in we assess and understand the process we evaluate the design of the process right we're identifying what the key risk are what controls should be in place which are
there which are not and then testing those controls that are in place um I will turn it back over to Michelle [Music] thank you Claire um again uh we would like to
thank um Miss Boston Ellis and her team um as well as Mr Powers and his team for assisting us through this purchasing and procurement um internal audit um they everyone was very helpful very available
um very transparent and we really appreciate that they were a pleasure to work with um as we go through this one as well um I'm going to note as well that the testing results additionally
just with the HR report those instances of non-compliance were actually very low as compared to other districts that we work with um which I think demonstrates staff diligence um to um comply with um
the procedures and policies at the district a lot of our observations are around the district growth and being able to identify areas for the district to be more strategic and enhancements with process design around
purchasing so going into our first one this is very similar to our HR with our segregation of Duties within the Skyward system um again um the information around those permission
controls was not clearly defined um and so really um looking to get more documentation so that we can identify if there's segregation of Duties issues within the system um tis is aware of
this as well they're actively working with the um with the finance team in order to um really Define those responsibilities and document the permissions around the system in addition for um for this
particular audit we did identify uh a opportunity I guess you could say around segregation of duties for processes um currently Finance is responsible for maintaining the vendor Master file and the vendor payments as
well we don't normally see that in the same Department um having uh the ability to to perform tasks on the front end of the vendor and then also on the back end for payments as well however um the individual that is
responsible with in finance does not have access to um the accounts payable function so as we talked through this with um the finance team um you know they felt like there was a uh lower risk from that perspective because that
individual does not have those two permissions however with it being in the same Department our concern was um if there's turnover um which is a common theme with a lot of our school districts and maybe duties and permissions are reassigned um
that there could be an opportunity there so our recommendation for these is for TI and finance to continue working through those uh the documentation for the segregation of Duties within Skyward
um and for the finance department and maybe the purchasing department to kind of review and look at the segregation of Duties and the the how the workflow is laid out for vendor
additions we do see these types of process flows pretty often with our school districts so this is not um this is not uncommon for number two we have internal accounts procurement um we had a couple of
instances where there was non-compliance and again this is a decentralized procedure these are the school activity funds this is not the district um funds and so all of these processes would be performed at the
school level um we had two instances where the um minimum minimum dollar amount exceeded that the threshold for the state statute where they are required to have three written quotes we have five instances where a W9 was not
obtained for vendors U to determine if they are qualified vendor for 1099 we had two items where um the vendor application was not obtained um per the district policy and then one instance in which terms and conditions
for a contract was signed by a principal and it was not reviewed by legal beforehand um again the number of instances are actually fairly low um and with within
our um uh experience with different districts the observation is pretty common because internal accounts aren't typically reviewed by the purchasing um process like they're actually going through and reviewing the POS and things like that um however that would be our
recommendation um the procurement function understands and knows the the processes and the requirements the best for um any type of procurement and so having them a part of that process on the front end would assist the district
with that compliance and there are a couple of school districts that do that in the State of Florida but not very many um in addition to that we would um like for the district to to continue their training opportunities that they have with the sites in order to to
ensure that they understand um the pro procedures that are in place at the district around purchasing for number three spend analysis we um noted that there's limited periodic review around spend
data to identify Trends and opportunities to improve procurement methods throughout the district and this is really looking at The District in total in aggregate not not looking at a school individually but looking at all of the schools and really combining
those totals throughout all of the schools with the district funds and also combining that with the PE card so really looking at spend all the way across the entire District which is a tall order for districts especially when they have a lot of manual procedures and
processes around their systems and things like that um but we do feel feel like that is the best practice in order to really identify efficiencies and cost savings for the district um so our recommendation is a structured spend analysis process that's
periodic um it's happening um at least once or twice um ideally like maybe quarterly throughout the district to identify cost-saving opportunities um and then supporting the compliance with the procedures and really kind of
building those um supplier relationships with the vendors um so that the district can get the best costs um with their expenses for number four we have non-standard contracts um again also a common
observation that we're seeing across our districts uh we we would like to see a formal mechanism in place in which all non-standard contracts are going through legal to ident ify if there's any language that um maybe the district does
not want to uh agree to so just because it's agreed to with another agency um either within the State of Florida or outside of the State of Florida doesn't mean that maybe meing County wants to um agree to those terms so really just
having a formal mechanism in place in order to review all of those non-standard contracts um is what we would recommend on number five um as I mentioned earlier we always have an sop observation um so
this is not an exception um what we saw here was while there's policy and procedural documentation throughout the district it's not Consolidated into a comprehensive manual that's concise for direction to the sites and the schools to utilize for
procurement um so we'd like to see that um go in for forward uh just to have that um single point of information to guide the process um as well we did also identify uh a couple of areas that would
benefit from additional detail in the procedures um so we did provide that to the district um to update what they're currently practicing perhaps or maybe some areas that are um not as defined um that the district could Define going
forward additionally we recommend that all of those procedures are reviewed on an annual basis and documented so that concludes our observations for purchasing we do have a
couple of process Improvement opportunities um as well as in our HR discussion these are to improve overall efficiencies and really being um creating and developing a strategy
around procurement um um to uh to better align with the overall organization's goals um and as Clara had mentioned you know we are noting that um Maran schools has had a lot of growth over the past
couple years and so we're seeing that maybe the current design of the procurement function isn't quite aligned um with the size and the need for the district currently um so we recommend that the district perform a intern review
basically to kind of identify how they can um more effectively um fulfill their needs through the procurement function on number two um again more areas to streamline um potentially
around vendor applications and vendor validation and then number three um just as we mentioned with HR there's manual process that are taking place that are not a function of Skyward um so the contract
management is something that's very complex and and there's a lot of moving parts to it and it's not something that can currently be um monitored through Skyward so if the district is um able
to obtain a software in order to assist them without monitoring that would be very beneficial again also a very common um situation for many of our districts and then our last item is with
vendor performance monitoring um the district does have a mechanism in order to identify uh vendor performance that's significantly deficient so if there's a big problem they do document that and they do um distribute that however we
would like to see a a more comprehensive overall vendor monitor train of performance um which could be obtained through the sites um and your schools in order to share like who's doing good who's not doing good and that really
helps the procurement office to go back to the vendor and say you know this is the feedback we're getting we need to have better Services um or you're doing a great job and we really appreciate it so um just
some areas of um opportunity for the district that we've identified any questions Dr Campell does thank you uh it's not so much a a question necessarily as comment so uh noticing
first of all your process Improvement opportunity number one is related to the organizational structure and governance page 12 of your full report is the one that caught my attention the most uh when I was reviewing this myself so just
because the community may not be looking at this they're watching this on on um a screen as opposed to actually looking at what we're looking at they took uh purchasing positions by district and compared us to like siiz districts uh
Lake St John's Escambia valua bravard and Collier what is most interesting to me we hear a statement anecdotally in the community that we're topheavy I can assure you community in this particular Department we are either
middle or bottom heavy and we have no top and if we look at everybody else that is a comparable District all of the other ones I named all have a director over this position and many of them also have a manager or supervisor level we
don't have either of those positions I find that to be interesting because some of what you're saying as the additional Improvement opportunities are that highlevel decision maker type of things that we could get done if we had the 30,000 foot director manager
over these kinds of of issues so I I think that's an opportunity for us to consider I I'm in tandem with the salary schedule that I know we're going to be talking about in the future uh but this is a an important function of this
district and most every dollar functions somehow through purchasing whether it's just the vendor application piece or go on go on so I see this being an incredible opportunity for us to
consider the necessity of changing the governance structure within this department and then potentially just with that high level Authority remedying some of the other challenges the other one that you mentioned here again in an improvement opportunity is the manual contract management I could not agree
more I also saw the word automation a few times throughout your entire audit we have to get better at at automating things and getting away from just doing things manually because
it's the way we've always done it I always go back to the electronic work orders that we just implemented in the last couple of years and it's still kind of working its way into to working really really efficiently but the fact that we're managing a billion dollars of
budget and we're still handling a ton of pay paper is just setting up an opportunity for us to have additional challenges that you didn't identify in yournal internal audit that's what I'll say about that thank you thank you Dr Campbell board
any further comments or questions okay yes board member thrower yes thank you and um I I do concur with um board member Campbell's comments um one of the strengths of this District through the years is that we've had very
dedicated long-term employees where all of that knowledge was housed in their head and as things continue to move along and and we're growing and hiring and people are retiring we're seeing that reflected you know across the
United States I mean you know there's a big retirement coming up in the next few years of a lot of people with deep deep institutional knowledge um you know everything comes with a price tag but but we're at the point now with the the growth that we're experiencing and and
the employees that are reaching their retirement age that that we simply have to have uh systems now um for those functions so thank you for um amplifying that need uh because it's it's critical
in in in my opinion uh we just have way too much going on at this point to keep it all in some amazing employees head thank you very good thank you board member thrower board any anything
further okay all right thank you thank you all right we've already been through the cyber security we did internal external penetration testing all right next up we have a proposed internal audit plan um internal
audit you don't have we don't have an unlimited budget can't be everywhere you know every year right so we had um our annual individual meetings with you all as individual board members talking with superintendent talking with your
leadership within the district uh reading your news seeing what's going on with other Florida school districts and what's going on in the internal audit world as well um so oops sorry uh the three topic areas
high-risk Focus areas that proposing for the next round for um internal audit is hent hent is new to you all just pass so what we have done with our other districts getting in there early on to make sure that the processes are in
place for transparency reporting are the funds being used as stipulated next up we have construction um that came up a lot during our discussion um we have a team of subject matter experts that this is what they focus on with our public sector entities
looking at the construction looking at um the procurement vendor management um pay applications all that fun stuff when it comes to Construction Construction is not just about new buildings it's about rebuilds it's about maintenance it's about enhancements so kind of looking at
it from the various Realms and then last up you've heard us talk a lot today about segregation of Duties you we had this on some of our previous round reports as well so talking with Mr Beni on how internal audit can be helpful to him with this we
also have another team that focuses strictly on segregation of Duties and really trying to get into those Antiquated systems like Maran has and and and trying to understand where those risk are um so some of the elements include you know the the risk the
granting of the user access the provision identity um identification Etc it's I mentioned Mr benu benity yes TI is working on this but this is a collaborative effort amongst the various departments it's not just it they
typically spearhead it but it's is including other departments and this would probably be a phased approach because we can't get to everything at one time so I um working with him and identifying where those some of those high-risk functions are and then just start try to start helping him chip away
from that lens and then also we'll have followup proc procedures for the previously issued reports um and it just we we reported on those observations now it's time for us to do followup and then the development of the next year
plan any questions I once been proposed for this internal audit plan okay yes so starting with the bottom first the follow-up is what I've been looking for so I you have identified a lot of
wonderful areas of improvement opportunities and so and looking at the other chart that you gave us that shows what we did in 2023 what we've done in 2024 here's what we're proposing in 2025 I am interested in seeing the improvements we've made in those areas
that you had identified previously I also completely concur with the other recommendations I love the idea of getting in early on the half cent sales tax obviously in the years past we have approved I think three based on costs so I would be interested
and we haven't seen the actual cost analysis on what recommending four options for us would be in comparison to three uh but segregation of Duties also is is Prime and ready for us to start really breaking this District down into
the ways that you operate when you are the size that we are now and operating with the kinds of dollars that we have now and the numbers of students that we have now that we don't see going away in the foreseeable future same with
planning design and construction I can get on board with with all of those um and then I'll just have a general comment I I want while we're doing this and there may be additional comments about your recommendations I'm just sitting here thinking how grateful I am that Dr
gullet identified and the team identified that we needed to have internal Auditors because to imagine all the things that you've identified and all all of the I just will say challenges more than vulnerabilities but they are vulnerabilities that we have
districtwide there's a lot of conversation right now nationally and even in our local community about government needs to be audited well guess what community we're doing it and your board started doing that in 2023 thanks to our superintendent
because she didn't want to continue operating The Way We Were knowing that we needed to have third party eyes come in and say here are the vulnerabilities and challenges and here's the process to get to to be better and and to have our
district be better to imagine that previous boards before 2023 did not have this is is fascinating and in part how we've continued to to sludge along in the way we've been doing work and we've been doing great work and we have people working really hard every day but
imagine how much easier their jobs could be if we just corrected some of these challenges much sooner and so I'm grateful that we're able to do that now and hopefully the peace and Senator Simon's Bill to do away with internal
audits uh that just released yesterday I could still see even if it's no longer statutorily required we don't know if that's going to pass yet even if that part of his bill um remains I could still see a value in Maran County School Board having internal Auditors for the foreseeable future because we continue
to identify areas we need to improve thank you and we did build this plan based on the budget allocation that we were given perfect yes very good thank you Dr Campbell anyone else oh Dr James thank you um thank you for sharing today and I
think that the priorities that you presented um are wonderful we we pick three right we've historically picked three I think that's what we've budgeted so if we were picking three the first two make a whole lot of sense to me and then I would go with the pleasure the
board for the third item I think I heard Dr um Campbell ask for follow-up procedures actually she just answered that question just before you spoke she said that they have built this based on the budget all five oh I guess I interpreted it like you saying I'm sorry I misunderstood what you said that sorry
sorry yeah so this is built on the budget allocation that we were given these this could all five can okay I misunderstood that portion of what you said I apologize well then I'm excited that we can do all of them um my understanding is that the reason we started having an internal audit was
because we hit a budget threshold that statutorily required it so um I don't necessarily know that I'm glad that we have it I I don't know that if we hadn't hit the budget threshold we would have been here but I I am very grateful that we have internal Auditors because it is allowing us to
have theoretically proactive conversations about trying to address some of our shortcomings prior to an audit that would find them otherwise so um I'm looking forward to the Contin work thank you madam chair if I may um
just as a point of clarification um and Miss Boston 's recalls and board for those of you on the board at the time I made the recommendation for an internal auditor before we met the threshold when I first arrived in 20120 so um it was I felt it was necessary I was always used
to internal Auditors and found it be valuable um process so that was before we met that threshold thank you Dr gullet board members yep what yes thank you I see this as just
part of our ongoing Evolution as as a district um like it or not you know this community is really changing and there's things that I think almost every board member sitting up here is probably a little uh nostalgic about you know that
there were just folks that knew what to do and it was in their head and they got it done and if they didn't know they had a right-hand woman or a right-hand man that just kind of seamlessly picked it up without a lot of formalized um
processes systems and and operations but you know we we've gotten to that point and I think um with a superintendent coming in from outside so to speak it was probably a lot more clear to you Dr gullet than maybe it even was to
us um originally because it was the way we were used to doing things and there was there was comfort you know in that but what I'm hearing is is that we're moving in the direction of you know modernizing professionalizing our practices and our systems which over
time should be a huge uh I think we'll see return on that investment of of putting these five things in our budgets and what I liked about your report one of the many things was um there were statements about what was already being put into place that staff has been able
to um you know see that trigger and and deal with it um right off the bat and and make some needed changes so uh without you know waiting and so I I really like that a lot I see this as a real partnership I know from having been shair previously that you've been really
straightforward and wonderful to work with uh you're absolutely honest that it not looking for gotas just looking for ways to improve to you know keep us moving forward so thank you thank you okay Reverend is shaking shaking
his head okay um the women said it all upet and I really I do agree with Reverend Cummings I I can't say it any better than what my fellow board members are say I just I would like to add a thank you to our staff um throughout your presentation it it was shared um
how Cooperative um how helpful how transparent our staff was in in working through this process and so I know um at some point there was a lot of conversation about you know this this internal audit and and it's a great process but it adds another level of
stress and strain to the job that our our staff are already um doing in their everyday work and so I just want to take a quick moment to thank there's a lot of you in in in the audience but um uh Miss
Boston Ellis wanisha um Mr Ben vudi um Mrs bomach I just want to say thank you to all of you um for jumping in and helping get this uh completed so we can move forward uh be more efficient and more effective with with the hopes of
really providing some relief uh for our staff in in the new future as Things become more defined and more definitive so thank you uh for your presentation and all the work uh you've put into helping us move forward so thank you thank you right is there any
public comment at this time okay seeing and hearing none we are going to go into um board comments um Dr goet good morning nothing
from me thank you Miss Martinez no mam chair thank you attorney Powers nothing from legal thank you okay Dr Campbell sure thank you I I do have just a couple of things first of all wanted to uh make sure that you all had been receiving the
invitations from uh Dr creedle in Marian County government about Maran County day coming up on April 10th I know we'll have some folks from the district there but I did attend last year uh and I didn't know if any of you were interested in going there is a a dinner
usually the evening before and uh the deadline to let him know essentially if we're going is March 1st first and that's quickly approaching so check your calendars and maybe by the board meeting on on Tuesday evening we can determine if if anybody else wants to go I'm still
working on my schedule to see if I'll be able to go on April 10th but just hopefully you're have you gotten the invites I wanted to make sure everybody had gotten those okay perfect so we'll just need to make sure that we RSVP to him um by March 1 if we're wanting to do that also grateful that Jessica Janice
sewitz was right on top of Senator Simon's bill that came out yest yesterday again not sure if everything he has in there is going to pass the internal auditor was one of the things I noted that he is going to be striking potentially um also rather than striking the 90 calendar days it still says 90
calendar days or a time that school boards and locally would deem um necessary so we essentially could uh they're you know they're trying to add add language instead of taking away what we regardless it's fine it it will still
solve a lot yes and and the graduation information that we heard when we were in Tallahassee is a part of this to change graduation requirements so there several different things I highlighted just if you have a moment just mainly looking for the things that are underlined is what you can look for the things that are being added and then the
things that are being stricken through then that um is is helpful information the last thing I wanted well actually two things so I know on Monday we do have a a work session to talk about some of the documents that we have uploaded about the future of what we're going to
do and build and etc etc one of those elements is in dellen and it led me I was in dellen this week it led me to question if we have potentially talked to government leaders in the city of dellen to talk
about what their future growth plans might look like and so and it also made me think I know that in facilities on our list that we just received in a monthly update quarterly update that we're currently talking about Belleview Elementary and design potentially on
that campus I'm curious if we have also had communication with Belleview city leaders to see if there are other opportunities if that land at Belleview Elementary doesn't fit for us because um I I I just think that we need to explore
all options and not including our governmental Partners in those smaller communities might be doing us a disservice and so I I wanted to just throw that out there I we'll talk more on Monday um Belleview is not a part of the Monday conversation I don't think
but dellen certainly is so throwing that out and then the last thing I wanted to bring up I know yesterday I believe yeah Wednesday yesterday we received the superintendent's evaluation and I know that on Tuesday evening we talked briefly about how quickly it would take us to get that done I'm grateful we got
it yesterday ahead of today so I could I at least could have time to digest what the questions are we've asked on the superintendent's eval valuation as they align with the Strategic plan in tandem with the things we've changed in the Strategic plan so I haven't yet seen a
Full Compilation document yes we did have I pulled all the different ones that we had from goal one two 3 four and five but we've taken a lot of things away and added a lot of things and we don't actually have a new compilation of what all that looks like additionally I
think that it might benefit us to actually look at the superintendent's evaluation tool again in at length I I think there's some things now that we've taken things away from the Strategic plan we've been able to accomplish some
of those things that we weren't ever actually measuring in the evaluation tool and there are things I think that we need to be measuring in the evaluation tool if we hit a certain graduation rate or if we hit a certain rate among a certain demographic what have you and and we are seeing these
learning gains and that's not incredibly reflected in how we have have our metrics written in the evaluation tool now I remember I was the chair when we created the evaluation tool because we needed something and when we did that we
were building off of other people's and we kind of put ours together based on our plan and and just in looking back at it I I mean I'm not trying to move the goalpost I'm just saying I I think there might be additional need for Conversation Over the evaluation tool
itself I know that we don't have to have this done until June 1st I think by contract and if we approved it by I was pulling the board meeting so there's a May 13th board meeting and a May 27th board meeting if those are like the Dead the end game when we would actually approve them and acknowledge them as a board if
we could possibly have a work session maybe April 3 or so where we could re-evaluate this tool that doesn't look like that concurs with M with Dr James I saw that ey roll I just I I know that I don't really know what the urgency is
I'm looking back on the other evaluations we've done the evaluation in 2023 was completed the end of April the evaluation in 2024 was completed in middle of May it's February 20th so I'm just if we want to move the
evaluation tool discussion up into March I'm totally fine with that I just don't know that if we had the opportunity to re-evaluate our evaluation tool I would love that opportunity and that's what I want to say just very quickly Bor I'm just going to step in for a second um um
the reason that we're talking about it is because last year it got away from us a little bit and so when that happened and that came conversation came up I put it in my calendar to make sure we didn't get behind and so that was the only reason it was brought forward I am happy
um to have a work session discuss that but I would like to do it sooner than later just because things happen um and so I you know we're off to a pretty good start we're ahead of schedule and so I'd like to keep the ball rolling perfect I just at this from this board seat I
would love the opportunity to re-evaluate our evaluation tool and see if there are things that we might want to adjust or alter based on the things we have already accomplished within the district that were originally a part of the Strategic plan and things that we
might want to potentially add into the Strategic or add into the uh evaluation tool moving forward okay so um um it was in my n notes to talk about a timeline but maybe we will um do that on Monday
so everybody has a little time to look at the evaluation tool we have and then have discussion okay to add it to our Monday well I do have a hard stop at 11 o'clock on Monday so as long as we're good then that's fine okay can I sure can we ask the superintendent how she feels about
her evaluation tool sure that's a great idea dret I apologize for not asking that's quite all right thank you chair conr I appreciate the conversation because when it came up before I had not heard from any board member um about the sense of urgency I was actually contacted by Miss Morant who received an
email that it was urgent and uh was directed to send it out ASAP in Capal letters on behalf of the board so she was confused of as the urgency to get the tool out um I do know that we um had conversations last year um that it's a
collaborative project I do I do hear Dr Campbell haven't heard from the other board members yet but um since nobody has talked to me about this uh oneon-one um I think it is a consideration um I I I represent my entire team um of a lot
of incredibly hardworking employees doing a lot of work um you heard the the audit reports today and and the challenges we have but the work that's happening um there are things that are not on the evaluation tool um that we're getting that I think we're getting done
there's certainly always room for improvement um um but if you look at Capital alone getting getting things like impact fees moving forward and sales tax that hasn't been done in 20 years and having now a plan and being able to have a financially stable
District where we now are able to get things done far past my tenure here um those are not considerations that are in the Strategic plan and that's also part of my work is is to is to um share the information with the community voters
and just that's just just one element of the work there's a lot more involved I think um that is not in there um that I think the community I hear from the community and I hear from our stakeholders that's happening processes
things like that all right other board members want to chime in on your field do you want to take a look at the sorry can you hear me do you want to take a look at the um evaluation tool yes um first of all I'll take
responsibility for last year you know we we no no no I was not that is not what I was doing I think um sorry to interrupt you uh board member th but no but going on and we still made there's a lot of change there was a lot of change and so um who's responsible for what and what
time it's supposed to be done was still a little tricky and so um it was the responsibility of the board and the attorney and HR and so we had to figure out who was responsible for what so that was in no way shape or form um any it was just that I took note that it the
same thing would have happened to me the days get away from you so thank you and yes please go ahead board member thrower yes yes and I I do want to thank the board um for stepping up you know last year and we got it done you know well ahead of of the deadline um there was
confusion as to as to the process or or the the systems that would trigger you know like where does that come from um and that's the first thing I'd like to clarify for future chairs from now on for our superintendent will we be getting the evaluation tool which I
already have saved on my guest to and probably you guys do too somewhere um from Human Resources is that that's my understanding okay perfect great I will share that um it's been a few years that we've been using this evaluation tool
and I think it's rip um to be updated I'm just looking at page two things like just typos I know that simple but this one goes from 2024 on page two to 20245 so if we in its current form if we
get this done this year we G have to do it again till long after the world has ended probably dinosaurs might be back on Earth by then so um just little things like that um graduation rate is really important to all of us as chord of what we do uh I think we've already
gone up two points did I say that right okay so so um some great movement there um we have made some changes I think that I continue to be very grateful that it got brought forward early because I think we have some work to do yeah and
I'd like to see it be a work an agendized work session item okay very good Reverend Cummings um we have been using this tool for a couple years and um as long as I'm as long as the superintendent is an
agreement because this is her evaluation I think um we can update it and it it not try to move the the goal post um want to be fair and Equitable okay and how we deal with this so um as long as the superintendent is in agreement that
is her evaluation she's a part of the the updating of it I don't have a issue with it all right thank you Reverend Dr James um yeah I would be in an agreement that we we should get it done maybe in that first work session in March so we if we have to have two sessions on it it allows us opportunity
to plan forward um and then I don't can't remember it was a third sorry Dr James that you're talking about the March 13th um I'm talking about I guess I'm talking about March 13th that would be our next work session
yes unless we had a discussion about it on the 24th but it has not been agendized to do that so um my request would be I I can't remember do we vote on on the tool once we edit it I think it's oh sorry I think it's
just a consensus on the tool itself because Dr goet is a part of the conversation with us and then we do officially vote on the um once we complete them I think we do I think that's an item yes that's a vote that's that's agenda yeah that's an agenda item
so and again that can be done in May because the 13th or the 27th either one would still be in contract compliance okay so consensus for the instrument and then a vote on when the the um evaluations are completed MH okay yes
while we're thinking about thank you while we're thinking about this I do have one more thing um we only have two employees at the school board and that's the superintendent and our um School Board attorney so since we're reviewing the um superintendent evaluation I think it's fine time to uh take another look
at um our school board's attorney evaluation I think in most districts that have appointed superintendent um and maybe even ones that don't the um superintendent evaluation is a public facing document and so is a school board attorney because those are our two employees so I think that's something we
should probably look at thinking about doing too I think that's a good call is there room on the work session for that day Dr gullet I I'm looking now thank you madam chair um we can certainly add it to March 13th if you would like yes all
right the board would like that okay I lost track of who was giving comments it was Dr Campbell and that was that concluded my comments okay thank you very much for the latitude there um Dr James awesome I'm gonna pass down um
a picture from the property appraisers website board I want to have a brief discussion Miss bomach and I have been emailing back and forth um I in visiting the community of reic uh visiting Mr planning and then I was at the groundbreaking for the new park in reic
which they have found a lovely place for it which I think is way better than where they wanted to put it on our property um so all things happen in good times so I'm I'm I'm Distributing this to you today Bard um what you'll see on your paper if you hold it with Jimmy cowen's name at the top and so it's
horizontal in the far right corner I tried to also shade there's a little blue part shaded in on the corner of our parcel for Reddit colure Elementary School and there this corner houses some dilapitated basketball courts that are
within our perimeter fence so they are not accessible to the community nor would we allow them to be because we don't let the community onto our playgrounds for safety reasons in the back of Reddit coller's property there is also basketball courts that are not
dilapitated that the children use and um being the good community that they are and children being children occasionally they hop the back f to play basketball on the weekend because they want to be able to play basketball Mr Manning has shared this frustration and concern with me because
it does lead to a safety concern I am engaged in conversation with Miss bomach um Mr mcfaden uh attorney powers and the town of reic and I want to present an option to you all and here if you are willing to play ball if I if I could use
a pun with me so um the the little blue shaded area is the area on the corner of the parcel that is where the basketball courts are are currently um housed a quick move of our perimeter
fence could exclude these basketball courts however we can't just exclude the basketball courts and still own the property because our good attorney would say we're still liable for the things that happen on the property so what would have to occur is we would have to get a survey of the property which Miss
has shared with me would probably be about $1,500 and that survey could essentially exclude this little portion of our parcel and then the board would either engage in a sale or a donation to the town of reic which they would be they
would be excited about um to receive this corner parcel with the basketball courts on it um and then I intend to work with the town to engage the community to Revitalize not just the tennis courts but the basketball courts
because right now the tennis courts cannot be used either um North ran high school used to practice at the tennis courts but can no longer and they actually travel to Golden Ocala because of the um the the state of the tennis courts so there are community members
interested in revitalizing both of the courts and the town is very interested in having both of the courts available for the community and if those basketball courts were available for the community they the students would then have no need to jump The Back Fence to play basketball because they would have
access to basketball all of the time so um the $1,500 Falls well under the board's of authority of $50,000 Mark so I wanted the board to discuss and Miss bombach obviously wanted as well for the the board to discuss publicly would the
board be interested in a in about a $1,500 re survey of our property um of to exclude this portion and then I would recommend selling it for a dollar to the town of reic and letting them have this
little corner and this basketball court so then they the town can engage in revitalization efforts of a essentially a basketball court in tennis court so that's my first item for today um if the board wants to get feedback now great maybe we could follow up on
Monday if you want time to um think about it but I wanted to make sure you had the information so I guess that's my first item and you can tell me I think um I think going over at Monday is a great idea it gives us a chance to do a little investigation um
bring any questions that we might have forward and then um we can come to consensus okay all right thank you Dr James that sounds good for me um the I was hopeful that we could get an update on the code of conduct from Reverend
Cummings I know that I had passed off that respons responsibility to you and I was hopeful you could just update us on like where we are there are the meetings concluded I think or we're working towards that at this time the um meetings have not been concluded um
there's the issue has been um the full group of people have not been able to attend all the meetings some I think possibly because of time so as of this morning um the update was that there's going to be a rescheduling of uh code of
conduct meetings and I'm meeting time and date okay from my understanding that date is going to be moved to from a Thursdays to possibly Wednesdays so okay so there are going to be future meetings correct so my and board the reason the the primary reason
if we recall that I gave up responsibility for the code of conduct committee was because there was no virtual participation and in having visiting schools and having conversations with principles I was made aware by multiple staff members and principles that they've been unable to participate because the meeting started
at 4:45 and if you are at a site in dellan until 4:00 there's no not a chance you're going to make it and then if you have to aod a basketball game and so there has been a lot of a lot of heartburn around people being able to participate not
just from our end but from also staff end and so I like I guess my question to Dr gullet or Dr Brewer or Mr Frasier whoever is going to lead this work now would be be you know if we're going to continue to have future meetings can we
have them be virtually participatory so that we can ensure that everyone who's on the committee can participate um and it's too late for us to switch back because Mr Cummings has already been involved in the work but I would just hope that a virtual component would be available for those people who cannot
participate face to face so um that would be my request to staff board sure I see you leaning forward um that something I'm interested in also um visiting with staff I've heard also some concerns about the difficulty of attending meetings and so Dr G if you'll
let us know if that's a a possibility in the future um just to ensure that we have good participation um you know help us move things forward certainly Madam chair I uh appreciate that I will get with Dr Brewer today um I was not made
aware by anyone um including staff that there are concerns about attendance so uh I get with Dr Brewer today we want to make sure everybody can participate thank you thank you very much all right okay did you have something to share Mr just a quick question um where are the
meetings being held here here at MTI here at MTI okay because I remember in previous years we we met here sometimes and we also met at Brewster Hall sometimes so I was wondering if meeting location um yeah well I think you still
the issue is partly like Dr James said you we we're large County and people trying to get there and then you still have the meeting starting at 4:45 you still have staff that work at 5:00 that's that's an issue that's issue I get that and we want full participation
because I think the code of conduct is is so important that we um have all people at the table that can be at the table if if I may Madam chair uh board I I want to share also that I've directed staff to be really clear on how we need to move forward and make sure this is
done thoroughly so I I concur with the board in terms of participation because we really need to not just do this as a compliant task um I have concerns about the document how how families can access the information expect a guide to come
out of this i' I've provided written Direction on this already uh procedures guide quick guide I call that um I think there's a handbook element inbedded in this and I think the handbook should be a separate item so I think there's a lot of work that can be done and i' I've
just directed and ask that um of staff that the committee takes time to do this thoroughly for all of the reasons we've discussed before um and if as a parent or grandparent or any family member that you you can access or staff community members that's a concern so we need to
do our due diligence on this thank you Dr James uh yes so um one final thing so as you guys know I've spent many months highlighting our shortcomings when it comes to processing Owner Direct purchase or OD ODP for those who don't know ODP is when we are
able to capture the 6% sales tax savings on the purchase of materials for our construction projects um I sent a detailed email requesting information on past posos and where we had failed to process ODP previously to our facilities team in November and we received that
initial and incomplete set of information on December 20th and through and back and forth in the month of January I finally required a complete set of POS and an editable spreadsheet on January 31st um I spent some time adjusting the spreadsheet so that the not eligible items were removed to another sheet
sheet three and you will see my total and math on sheet two and this has been shared with Miss um Martinez who can upload it into my comments for you all to be able to find at a later date um as so I'm not sharing information with the board outside of
sunshine um so over the course of a little more than four years in a time when we were doing very little new construction or construction at all we failed to save somewhere between $45,881 19263 one9 in tax dollars due to failure to
process ODP staff maintains that the reasons behind failure to file these zp are valid but I would disagree during those four years not once did the board get approach to add additional staff to facilities to help directly with processing of ODP nor did our processes
get simplified or streamlined to the best support the work of the department and as discussed even today in our internal audit conversations we we are limited on staff in our procurement department and that is a that is a notable weakness of our district after
meeting with Miss bombach and her staff I have renewed confidence in our processes but want to see the board have a very watchful eye on these savings going forward I also want to see our previous request for a staffs superintendent Authority limit of $50,000 when not processing OD enshrined
in board policy as we have previously discussed ultimately I want this board to hold our superintendent and her staff responsible for this financial failure I hope this board understands my passion for being a financially and fiscally responsible elected official who wants to ensure every penny we can save is in
fact saved failing to save money is just as bad as overspending and that concludes my comments thank you Dr James Reverend Cummings um want pass okay all right thank you all
right board member thrower thank you um I I really like the possibility of the um reic conversation and and providing an opportunity you know for kids to be able to be outside and play basketball one question I will have is I know how
big couple of tennis courts are but I'd like to know uh and the survey will confirm how much land um are we talking so that's just something that I figured i' put out there now so that maybe we'd have an answer um when we talk about it
um I wanted to uh thank this board for the time that that all of us take um to drive up to Tallahassee um you know trying to make it as physically responsible as as possible all of our meetings for last week to a different
day so we just pivoted a lot of us uh drove up and drove back and any that didn't you know had solid reasons not to including having students um that are uh shadowing interning uh whatever you know and in senator's offices so pretty cool
stuff and that type there's there's no substitute for face to face you know um and this board has become I think uh I know because we get asked now what do you think here's some
draft language of bills that didn't Ed to happen to my knowledge and so I'm very grateful for each and every one of our um passions and and advocacy because that's good governance
that's what helps change better and it helps Mak make things work um so it's it it's great to to see that happening um looking forward to driving up quite shortly up to to Stark um for this
afternoon's meeting and um you know the last thing I'm going to say just in general is that I think that the presentation today proves uh that that we are going in the right direction there has been so much to clean up so
much that wasn't getting done the money wasn't there you know those of us who were here during the Great Recession remember how bad things got and you don't just recover from that you know in two years and say oh okay that's over um anyone that lived here experienced that
and so I continue to believe that there are very strong and and valid reasons why we do what we do and why our departments do what they do and I'll say again as long as it's in the best interest of doing what's best for kids
and being timely in our projects then I don't know that I can go with uh just some grand total um because there's always kids Behind the numbers and what was happening at the time so uh once again I I want to thank everyone that
continues to be do willing to do this work uh Schoolboard members are getting harder to find uh teachers are getting harder to find you know everyone associated with public education they're getting harder to find because the the challenges and the stressors are real
but when things happen in the right direction there is no better feeling so just happy to have the opportunity to continue to serve that's what I have thank you thank you I do have one thing go ahead Reverend I do have one thing I was debating about how I was going to
say this or if I was going to say this but um Monday we this coming Monday we have a special work session that the board agreed to have concerning uh redistricting um concerning uh the uh conversation that we had a couple weeks
ago about fezan and Anthony as well so um just want to make sure that that is out noted noted to the community because one of one of the components one of the things that came out in that meeting was that there need to be Community input U the community spoke um very loudly and
clearly on that night that they want to have input so so um just want to make sure that is stated that meeting will be held Monday here at 9:00 as a work session I'm sorry 8 8 am as a work
session agend item and I'm sorry I say something yes um I remember the conversation about what time and and I think I remember saying that you know sticking to nine o'clock is good because that's when we're used to having work sessions and then I was a little surprised when I opened my calendar and
saw eight and and now I have a a conflict so I don't know U maybe I just dream that but I I concur that's that's what I recall of that situation as well oh I clearly remember Dr Campbell saying she had a hard stop at 11 because she has a prior obligation and that we were
needed to start at 8: a.m. I remember both of those that's why we ended yeah I guess I thought we landed at a different time uh which was our usual 9 o'clock um so anyway it is what it is I'll do my best to get here if I'm a little tardy so Madam chair um and concluding with
that I will be appearing at that meeting telephonically okay um I've already talked this to um Mr chrisan about that so so that we can have a full conversation about this redistricting okay thank you very much
all right okay board I just my comments are brief today um also I I just wanted to share that um you know when we're when we're over budget or things are falling behind the newspaper is very quick um to remind us of shortcomings
but recently there was an article in the paper about um and I know you all are all passionate about this um our our local construction company is um under budget and ahead of schedule and so I just think that is worth celebrating and
highlighting um because it's it's not always shared and so I just wanted to close out my comments um with with that celebratory uh remark I'm excited about our two new elementary schools and excited that one is scheduled to be done
ahead of time and for us to be saving a little bit of money which as you know never happens so just really excited about that and just thank you um board for their work and uh your commitment to the conversations today thank you for our teams um that are present with that
I have just a few um dates um the special which has been mentioned there's a special administrative briefing and work session scheduled for February 24th at 8:00 a.m. here at MTI and there's a school board meeting scheduled for February 25th 2025
at 5:30 p.m. there being no further business we will adjourn our work session at 11:35 thank you [Music] board for